Julia - Be Way Smarter

In some rare occasions, the framework keeps running for a very short time when unsolicited. Almost impossible to see, it took weeks for a very limited number of companies to discover it. An unidentified code is executed without the consent of the users.

In the laboratory of a security company in Sucre in Bolivia, the scientists are performing some crucial tests to better understand how the most famous framework for artificial intelligence operates. This piece of software is an open source tool serving as the foundation of most artificial intelligences working on the planet. This security company, ITDefense Consulting, is famous for finding important breaches and security issues in well known pieces of software. At the moment they try to understand some side effects reported by some experts using this framework, called BWS (Be Way Smarter).

In some rare occasions, the framework keeps running for a very short time when unsolicited. Almost impossible to see, it took weeks for a very limited number of companies to discover it. An unidentified code is executed without the consent of the users.

ITDefense Consulting is known for auditing some portions of the code. Thousands of participants develop together BWS. It is near to impossible to understand every part of the software. Usually people are experts in some very specific areas of the software.

After many weeks of hard work, the team at ITDefense Consulting finally discovered the issue. A very small back door has been created to let those who know its existence to use it and take advantage of the artificial intelligence. They can execute their own code within the distance.

The employees cannot help but express their emotions, what a relief ! So much work to understand the cause of the problem. For now it is time to celebrate, the scientists deserve to relax and be recognized for their discovery. Nevertheless, no one is blind, the back door might have been there for years. Who knows how many times it has been used, and for what purpose.

It is estimated than more than eighty percent of the artificial intelligences used on the planet are based on BWS. Julia is one of them. When she first started to develop her own artificial intelligence, she did not want to reinvent the wheel so she used this framework.

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Julia, the professor Geistreich and his team did not divulgate their discovery concerning the death of the Dalai Lama. They are not aware if the FIGU knows about their visit to the temple beneath the Yamadrok lake. Since they are not sure, they do not want to disclose that information. If FIGU does not know, they can continue to investigate secretly.

The death of the Dalai Lama is a major concern. Everyone is speculating about the potential murderers. The autopsy has revealed officially the poisoning of the spiritual leader. China and India are mutually accusing each other of being responsible of his death. They have already cancelled an important meeting between the two presidents.

China has threatened many times the Dalai Lama, so for the Indian government China is the culprit. As opposite, the Chinese claims India killed the spiritual leader as a leverage to accuse them and cancel the meeting. The two countries have planned military drills close to their common border.

Other people prefer to believe the Ottoman Revival Brotherhood is behind the killing. Of course many conspiracy theories flow over Internet. Documentaries, videos, and all sorts of so called proofs try to convince the readers about the legitimacy of the theories. If they knew the truth, if they knew that a sect is conspiring with some extraterrestrial beings...

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ITDefense Consulting released a statement about their latest discoveries. A footprint left in the back door matches one made by the team that spoiled the tomb of Genghis Kahn. When the robbers sold the spoils online through a blockchain technology, they left a small footprint. It is still not possible to identify them but it will definitely help the investigations.

The statement continues by saying that a French team led by professor Charles Leperspicace of the “École Polytechnique” in Paris has developed a patch to lock the back door. The school will provide a professional support for the companies that need help to install and test this patch.

Concerning the back door, it has been added around six months ago. The company that has published the code claims to have been hacked at that time but could not identify any data loss or alteration until yesterday.

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Julia is on her way to France. Professor Leperspicace was one of her teachers during her studies at the “École Polytechnique”. Julia wants to understand what data might have been compromised in her system.

After a warm welcome, the French expert explains to Julia how to determine if any data has leaked or been manipulated. Leperspicace is tall and rather fit. He cracks a lot of jokes to the point that on some occasion people do not know if he is serious or not. This feeling is even worse when he speaks English with his strong French accent. Anyway, he is very smart and reputed in his field. Julia speaks very well French; it is an official language in Madagascar. She speaks better French than Malagasy and English. Therefore, they always speak together in French.

Julia and Leperspicace exchange a few words about Jenny. The three of them know each other very well because the J team, as they were called, followed the class of Leper, the name given to Leperspicace by his students. Leper sounds like “the father” in french. Sometimes the professor is as awkward as a priest that is too close of some members of his congregation. Nevertheless, no one believes he ever sexually abused or harassed anyone. This does not exclude consent relationship. Julia naturally sets a boundary between professional and personal relationships but Jenny is more open.

After the meeting, there is no doubt that the back door has been used to access and control Julia’s artificial intelligence. After further investigation it becomes clear that the main purpose was to use the infrastructure to execute an algorithm within the distance. The goal was most likely the requisition of a lot of computers all around the world to get faster the results they wanted.

The robbers might have needed it to organize and calculate the best options to steal and move the spoils to a safe destination. Afterwards, they had to disappear as quick as possible and sell the goods without leaving any footprint.

The logistic had to be impressive and very well planned and executed for such a massive robbery. The first challenge was to move the spoils from a lost area in Mongolia to the border, then to organize the dispatching to many countries from Russia. No surprise that an artificial intelligence would be useful to achieve that.

After the last revelation by ITDefense Consulting some experts believe that the robbery was a way to finance other activities. Since they sold the spoils right away, it makes sense that it was not for the beauty of the treasures.

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Julia is now back in Graz to continue the investigation about FIGU. The installation and testing of the patch for the back door will be taken care of by her employees.

Julia and professor Geistreich decided to no longer use Julia’s infrastructure. They do not want the data of the investigation to leak anywhere if another back door is discovered or the patch not well applied.

They will run a copy of Julia’s artificial intelligence on the infrastructure of the university without any connection to the outside.

While Julia was in Paris, professor Geistreich and his team continued to analyse the material they collected in Tibet. There is no evidence of the presence of the missing people in the temple beneath the lake. Which was anyway obvious. It would require some logistic: food, stuff to run a laboratory, and partners coming in an out. So much traffic would be suspicious in such a remote area.

As they are showing some pictures of the FIGU camp to Julia, she observes a very interesting detail. When they visited the camp, it was dark, she could not see clearly. But on the pictures, it is very apparent. On one of the leashes used to hold the dogs, the logo of Vivo is visible.

Julia remembers this anecdote at Tom’s funeral a while back. Tom’s wife, Sonia, went to the headquarters of Vivo to talk to Tom in the virtual world. At that time she was a big fan of Vivo. As a puppy lover, Sonia saw an employee walking his dog with the logo printed on the leash. She loved it and asked to get one. Unfortunately, she was told the leash was a Christmas gift to the employees owning a dog. There is none left.

At the funeral, Sonia told everybody she almost had a leash from Vivo. She was then happy that she did not get one as she eventually hated Vivo after what happened to her husband. That day Julia found this story very annoying but wanted to pay her respects.

So far the identification of the FIGU members did not lead to anything serious. They are all on social media but just living boring lifes with nothing suspicious. Most of them, if not all, know nothing about what is really going on. They believe in aliens and want to worship them. They are not aware of the connection between the missing people and this sect.

Both Julia and Geistreich recall how good Vivo is to connect biology with technology. They could be really helpful to understand how these extraterrestrial black boxes work. This leash is a hint that FIGU might have asked Vivo for some help in a yet undetermined manner.

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